Who/what says minimum wages are a good thing? Take Europe. Half the countries have minimum wage laws and half do not. Those that do (Belgium, Netherlands, Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Luxembourg) have much higher unemployment rates than those that don't (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland). As for the U.S., minimum wage laws aren't typically used to increase the standard of living... they're used to curry favor with constituents and, therefore, their vote. Targeting the 1% by implementing a pay "ceiling" and rewarding the 99% by raising the pay "floor" would lead to nothing more than our society being put in a sort of "economic solitary confinement" (of stagnation, inefficiency, etc.). See USSR.
You've listed 18 countries in your two halves of Europe. The EU has 28 countries [1], and including sovereign states that are not part of the EU, there are 41 [2]. How did you decide what small subset of these to include in your comparison?
Here are a couple of lists that may be useful if you wanted to to a more complete comparison.
I support minimum wages on the theory that if someone is working full time at a wage too low to live on, they will likely have to also be on some form of public assistance, which I am helping pay for with my taxes.
I don't consider long term supplementing of below living wages to be a good use of my taxes. I'd rather see that worker quit that job, go completely on public assistance, and use that time to go to school to learn a skill, trade, or profession, so that they can find a job that does pay a living wage.
Your theory revolves around "snapshots" of people/pay/hours. Adults seldom stagnate in one income class their entire lives.
I don't believe a body of politicians should have the power to create income floors and ceilings with my tax dollars. An individual's actions determine whether he/she will climb up or down the economic ladder. If you're willing to pony up more of your money towards "public assistance" there should be a way for those that disagree to opt out of paying those taxes.
It is better to do something than nothing and allow the status quo to continue.
Plus the administration of such a scheme would not be that hard given that every employee's pay goes through some sort of accounts software these days.
It is you who is incredibly cynical. It is like slowly boiling frog...
Current status quo will continue even if you do "something". Your "something" will just make environment even more toxic for middle class and leave elite untouched.
Top 1M have many ways to get income and avoid taxation from salary: trust funds, stock options, bonuses (car, jet...), outsourcing. Even more taxation from salary is laughable.
